Greetings, Citizens,
After a Season of scrutiny from the Inquisition, it has been deemed necessary to dispatch the Angels of Death, and none of the Astartes embody this title more than the Blood Angels.
This Season we’ll be looking at some overdue buffs for the oldest in the Blood Angels range, and you can also expect a big expansion in their roster over the coming season!
Following on from last Season, the cards being added to the general pool are also listed here and will be going forward!
Let's get stuck in!
Balance Changes
Space Marines:
Brother-Sergeant Avernus - Blood Angels Assault Terminator
+10 Wounds, +6 Melee
One of the first cards every player unlocks, Avernus quickly gets dropped as a player progresses. Hopefully, a buff to both Wounds and damage output should make him more attractive further into the game!
Brother Ebellius - Blood Angels Terminator
+5 Range
The second of the two classic Blood Angels Terminators, Ebellius is another one that's easy to overlook in the large Space Marine roster in the 10-20pts range. As a low-cost Barrage Infantry, every extra point of Ranged output can make a huge difference, so a decent Ranged buff should make him more viable
Brother Gorjan - Blood Angels Hellblaster
-1 Cost
Talking of Blood Angels Ranged options, it doesn’t get more classic than Gorjan. A small reduction in cost is always welcome and helps with fitting him into Tolmeron decks where he wants to be to maximise your deck size!
Furio - Blood Angels Baal Predator
-4 Cost
And that's a great lead into another good Tolmeron option, also getting a points drop. While a newer card, on reflection the Baal Predator may be a bit on the pricey side, and as mentioned we want to make sure to maximise your deck size when building a Tolmeron deck! Even outside of Tolemron, more for less is always great!
Cassor the Damned - Blood Angels Death Company Dreadnought
-4 Cost
Finally we can’t talk about classic Blood Angels cards without talking about Cassor! One of the original Space Marine melee powerhouses, he’s fallen behind over time, but hopefully now a significant price drop can get him back in the spotlight and fit in with other great options without too much deck sacrifice!
Moving on to the wider card pool, we’ve got a more diverse selection of cards being buffed across most factions, and a long overdue Warlord change.
Aeldari:
Quiz Ignyss - Kabalite Heavy Gunner
+10 Wounds
A newer Aeldari card seeing a big uptick in use, but struggling to get the job done. A lot of this may be down to how fragile it is, so a bit more Wounds will definitely help it establish itself.
Baharroth
+10 Wounds, +5 Range, +5 Melee
Of the large roster of strong Aeldari cards in the 30s range, Baharroth often gets outshined despite his Legendary status. A generous all round buff should make him a much more competitive choice and feel like a Phoenix Lord should!
Necrons:
Tireless Resistance - Sautekh Dynasty Tesseract Vault
-5 Cost, +15 Range
Of the Necron Lords of War, the Tesseract stands out as being noticeably behind its peers. Costing the same as the Obelisk, it has 30 less Wounds, 21 less Range, and arguably slightly better traits. So to fix that obvious difference, the Tesseract Vault is getting a noticeable drop in points and a significant bump to its range, which should place it on a much more even footing with the other Lord of War options.
Servants of the Emperor:
Belisarius Cawl:
-5 Cost
Canticles of the Omnissiah: Minimum damage dealt 75 -> 60%; start of turn heal 10 -> 5%.
Cawl has been the hot topic since his release, and we’re making a long overdue decisive change to his special rule. We’ve been aiming to do a proper mechanical fix, addressing how it interacts with AoE traits, but it’s been challenging both to implement, and make time for. Rather than waiting for the right opportunity to make this change (which at this time is unknown), we’re going for an all-round nerf to the rules values. By reducing his damage output by ⅕ and defensive faction by ½ he should be much less of a menace. Given how significant this nerf is, we’re partially rolling back his initial nerf, increasing his cost by 10 to just 5. We’ll be keeping an eye on these changes and continue from there.
Chaos:
Zah’mat T’kor - Thousand Sons Tzaangor
+5 Melee
As a non-psyker Tzeentch card, the Tzaangor has that familiar spot as a psychic support card with its psychic buff ready on psychic but realistically doesn’t offer much more than that. Given that is how he will often be used, maximising his damage output, and therefore Furious Charge damage makes it much more useful either as a support card or, hopefully now, moving him into general melee deck rosters too.
Xu’Kul of the Eight Reaping - Lord of Skulls
-10 Cost
Just like the Brass Scorpion from last season, the Lord of Skulls stands out as a slightly older Lord of War, that is much pricier than a lot of other similar options. A significant cost decrease should make it much more viable, which is great given how fantastic the model is, we want to be seeing this card front and centre in more 400pt battles!
Tyranids:
Specimen: LV-714-GS-Φ - Hive Fleet Leviathan Hive Tyrant
-3 Cost
Of the two Hive Tyrants, this triple attack version is noticeably more expensive, and as such struggles in the Tyranid roster which is packed with choices for big bad beasties. Hopefully a decent price reduction gives this versatile card more chance to stand out.
That rounds out the balance changes, and now here’s the full list of the 10 cards being added to the general pool.
Cards Added to the General Pool:
Aeldari:
Yrule the Deathly Eloquent - Harlequin Troupe Master
Space Marines:
Asmodai - Master of Repentance
Identity Unknown - Inner Circle Companion
Master Zacharial - Dark Angels Captain in Gravis Armour
Brother Larathiel - Dark Angels Bladeguard Veteran
Brother Baraqiel - Dark Angels Intercessor
Murderfang - Space Wolves Wulfen Dreadnought
Chaos:
Seeker of Sensation - Seeker Chariot of Slaanesh
Orks:
Ufthak Blackhawk -Gargantsmasha
Tyranids:
Kreen Madrach - Genestealer Cults Atalan Wolfquad